Toasted Cinnamon Almonds

This is incredibly easy to do and DELICIOUS. A jar of these wrapped in a gorgeous bow would make a perfect Christmas gift... if they last that long without being eaten!

You'll need ABOUT...

4 cups of unblanched, raw almonds
2 egg whites
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup white sugar
1 level teaspoon salt
1 heaped teaspoon ground cinnamon

Preheat fanforced oven to 150C

1. In a large bowl, whisk egg whites with a whisk until frothy.

2. Whisk in vanilla extract

3. Add almonds and mix through mixture until all are coated.

4. In a separate bowl combine all dry ingredients

5. Pour dry ingredients over almonds and stir gently to coat.

6. Grease flat biscuit or oven trays and spread almonds evenly in a single layer. [TIP: I lined mine with baking paper which made it a bit hard to stir the almonds once they got sticky]

7. Bake for approximately 1 hour, stirring at least once with a flat spatula at about 30 minutes.

8. Allow them to cool on the trays and store in airtight container.

9. Try not to eat them all at once.

My kids ARE NOT fussy eaters!

This is often what lunch looks like for the boys on the weekend

My kids ARE NOT fussy eaters... they’re particular.

My boys eat well. They like vegies and meat and fish and fruit. They enjoy food not typically liked by kids like anchovies on their pizza and whole gherkins on their antipasto plate and triple cream French Brie and Spanish goats cheese and pickled herrings on brown bread with raw onion and salty Dutch licorice. 

Their palate is broad BUT they do not eat everything.

I get defensive when people refer to my kids as fussy eaters. Aren’t we all fussy when it comes to food? There’s lots of food I simply won’t eat, so is it unreasonable for me to expect my children to eat everything that’s ever offered to them? I think it is. It’s exasperating at times when they don’t like something new that I’ve asked them to try, but I accept that they may not. 

So when I’m meal planning, I always consider the following palate nuances of my family kids [my husband eats everything]:

Texture – my kids can’t stand anything mushy. This includes mashed potato, boiled vegetables, mornays. It also includes any vegetables that have been cooked in a saucey dish like carrots in a casserole or soup. But the upside is they’re BIG on salads, steamed crisp vegies, french fried chips and crunchy tuscan style potatoes [‘cause they’re just square chips]

Sauce – the eldest hates ‘saucey’ dishes. So when I serve casserole, for example, I have to only serve him with just the meat out of it without the sauce.

Pasta – they will both eat just about any pasta combination. Except cream sauces. This makes my life incredibly easy. It also means every month I will make Bolognese, spaghetti and meatballs and lasagne at least once each.

Rice – because they won’t eat mashed potato, I serve most of our dishes with rice which they love.

Soup – they will only eat one. Home-made chicken noodle. Served with rice.

Cake – the eldest doesn’t care for it. He can do a cupcake, sometimes, out of politeness but most times he’ll decline any offer. His favourite cake, that he asks for every birthday, is a vanilla, banana cake I make with Betty Crocker vanilla icing. The youngest has more of a sweet tooth but is still not driven by cake. Neither of them like creamy desserts.

Sandwiches – the youngest always asks for the works. Ham, lettuce, cucumber, cheese, avocado, mayo. Crusts cut off. The eldest’s FAVOURITE is fresh tomato and salt. Crusts on. He can eat 3 in a sitting. They won’t eat peanut paste or cheese spread but I can get away with serving them vegemite or honey. The whole family will put away a platter of BLT’s in minutes.

Meat – the eldest only likes roast lamb done on the weber. My youngest will eat any lamb but particularly loves lamb loin chops with the fat on. They both love steak and home-made hamburgers, chevaps and sausages.

Chicken - roast, take-away, yiros, satay, stir-fry, schnitzel. They love it.

Tacos – BIG winner. EVERTHING is crunchy so they make their own and throw them back.

Fish – I confess, we don’t eat a lot of fish in this household. But when we do, the kids are on board. Tommy ruffs, salmon steaks, whole snapper, tinned tuna. All baked or pan-fried, served with salad and chips. Nothing saucey except mayonnaise.

Eggs – If they’re fried, then they have to have the yolk broken and spread out and cooked right through so that it looks like a pancake. They call it ‘flat egg’. If they’re hard boiled they have to be JUST cooked in the centre and never runny. They will not eat omelette or scrambled egg.

But even knowing all these food preferences, does not always mean dinner time is easy. Sometimes they’re not in the mood for what I’ve cooked and sometimes they’ve filled up on after school snacks. Most times, because I know I’ve considered everything they like, I will make them eat as much as possible anyway. But if they’ve been served something that I know they don’t like, I will support them in their polite refusal to eat it. Just as I would expect any grown-up to support my choice to not eat something I really don’t like.

My advice to newer mums than me when they have ask how to deal with a fussy eater, is always the same. 

Firstly, consider texture. If they don’t like carrots too crunchy – steam them. If they don’t like mashed potatoes, roast them. Sometimes you can still get them eating the food you want them to [and that the rest of the family is] if you just prepare it differently. 

Secondly, if there is a food flavour that they really can’t tolerate – then don’t make them eat it. If your child’s diet is healthy and diverse, does it really matter that they don’t like avocado? If they will happily eat apples, mandarins, grapes and peaches, is it important that they eat bananas too? 

Of course, you must use your own instinct to sniff out a trickster. If you habitually provide dessert after dinner and they know you’re gonna let them have it whether they finish dinner or not – then chances are you’re being played. And don’t even get me started on the trap of offering sweet treats as a reward for eating the good stuff. That’s a whole other blog post.

There are LOTS of helpful blogs and sites with great tips on how to introduce food to kids who are fussy and if your kid is, then I’d suggest you check them out.

But just make sure they are actually fussy first.

Do you have fussy eaters? Or are they just particular?

Classic Choc-Chip Cookies

I've got a vintage copy of The Australian Women's Weekly Beautiful Biscuits cook book which I 'borrowed' from my first boyfriend's mum to learn how to bake for the love of my short life. Y'know, the one I was going to marry and have children with. I was 16 and have loved a couple of others since then and he's now a reverend or a pastor or something like that. When we broke up, I kept the cook book. It was part of my settlement package. Together with a white fluffy teddy bear holding a red satin love heart with "I love you beary much" on it, half a dozen mix-tapes and an id bracelet...

I first made these biscuits when I was 16 years old. 25 years later and not much has changed. I have removed the walnuts because you can't send kids to school with nuts anymore and have reduced the sugar amounts. I still make them to please boys that I love though. 

125g butter
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar, lightly packed
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
1 3/4 cups self-raising flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
125g choc chips [I use half white and half dark chocolate]

Preheat oven to 180c

Cream together butter, sugars and vanilla. [When I was 16 I used to do this with a hand-held mixer which took aaaaaaaages. Now I'm a grown up and I have one of those stand alone kitchen mixers that does it for me] Add lightly beaten egg gradually, beating well after each addition. Mix in sifted flour and salt. Add chocolate chips and mix well. Shape teaspoonfuls of mixture into small balls, place on lightly greased oven trays, allow room for spreading. [I got fancy and pressed the ones in the picture down slightly with a fork for a bit of detail. Made no difference to the taste.] Bake for 10-12 minutes.

They are a perfect lunch box size and the boys get one each every day. I have already reduced the amount of sugar from the original recipe but there may be room to reduce it more if you like.

What do you think?

Crunchy Nut Cornflake Cookies

Every now and then I get in the baking mood. It's not a regular thing so when it happens, I bake a lot. I'd like do it more often because wherever I can I try to reduce the amount of preservatives in the family's diet. So I do things like use organic flours and free-range eggs and real butter and raw, organic sugar. It balances the guilt I feel for then coating them in sugary cereal. Anyway, I was in the mood on the weekend and tweaked an old biscuit recipe to come up with this one. It was a DEADSET winner with the family. 

I present you with....

You will need:

125g butter
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg
1 cup self-raising flour
1-2 cups lightly crushed crunchy nut cornflakes

Preheat oven to 180c

Cream butter and sugar and light fluffy. [I never used to do this properly but now I have a mixer and my life has changed I tell you!]. Add egg, beat well. Fold in sifted flour, mix well. Shape teaspoonfuls of the mixture into small balls and roll them in the cornflakes. Flatten slightly on lightly greased oven trays. Allow room for spreading. Bake in oven for about 20 minutes.

It should make between 20 and 30 biscuits, depending on how big you make them.

These are seriously delicious and perfect for an after school snack with some milk for the kids. If there are nut allergies to consider, just use normal cornflakes or even Special K would work too I reckon. 

How simple is that??

On pulling pork

Everywhere I turn these days someone's talking about pulled pork and I have had NO IDEA about what they speak of. 

Pulled pork?? Almost sounds rude, doesn't it? Rude and tasty. Then this week, a friend told me they were having for it dinner. They were cooking it themselves. At home. In a slowcooker. And I thought - I can do that. 

So I did and if I can do it, YOU can too.

You'll need a piece of pork shoulder. I got mine from the supermarket, vacuum sealed and ready to go. You'll also need a slowcooker/crockpot, at least 8 hours to cook it, brown sugar, onion, garlic, paprika, salt, pepper, cinnamon and barbecue sauce.

I turned to Google for tips on cooking the best pulled pork and nearly fainted from the amount of content on offer, so I'm going to save you the fainting and break it down like this - anything goes. There are some that swear you should brown it off in a fry pan first, others that say to use an oven, some say keep the fat off, some practically demand you cut it off, some use stock, some don't use seasoning at all. It's a 'whatever floats your boat' kind of dish.

I opted to dry rub it with a mix of brown sugar, paprika, cumin and salt. When I do it again [which I definitely will] I'll replace the cumin with cinnamon and add black pepper. I lay it on a bed of sliced raw onion and garlic on the bottom of the slowcooker and added maybe half a cup of water. Put the lid on, turned it on low and went back to Facebook did the housework.

About 8 hours later I gingerly took it out of the cooker, which was harder than I thought it would be due to it being so tender. I cut the fat off and discarded it and then, using two forks, pulled the pork apart. 

AHA - pulled pork! 

I drained the juices from the cooker into a bowl and returned the onion and garlic back into the cooker. I followed one of my Google tips and mixed some of the juices with barbecue sauce [I had the basic hotdog Fountain type, but it would be nice with something more fancy] and returned the shredded meat to the cooker with the sauce and mixed it all up with the onions and garlic.

It was amazing. So tender and tasty and SO MUCH OF IT [had some on a sandwich with shredded lettuce and mayo today for lunch] I served it with steamed greens and crusty bread but to be honest I think it needs something salady with it. My friend served it with coleslaw which is probably perfect.

So there you are. That's how you pull pork.

Are you a pork puller? Do you have a better recipe than my hotch potch and, if so, will you share?